Spirit Help and Christian Love

I’m excited to spend this last morning with you as we dive into God’s Word. Psalm 91:1 has been our guide over the past few days and everything that we have talked about has related to what the Psalmist said in that verse, really that entire chapter. Remember the Psalmist writes: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” One of the things that I’ve tried to touch on each time that we come together is that our life with the Lord must be constant. We need to be constantly dwelling in the shelter of the Most High. We cannot thrive in the Christian life if we only make an occasional visit to the presence of the Lord. We cannot stand firm against the attacks of the devil if we are not placing our feet firmly on the truth of the Gospel and the authority of God. So, where do we go from here? Soon you will be back home and life will get back to normal but what is it that I want you to go home with as one last piece of advice that I believe has eternal significance? Only one life ‘twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last. There are two things that I want us to leave here with: Assurance and a Mission. I want us to leave here with the full confidence that we are not leaving here alone and the full assurance that there is work for each and every one of us to do. I want us to look at two of my favorite sections of Scripture: John 14 and 1 John 3. Let’s open up in prayer and then we will look first at John 14:16-27

John 14:16–27 NASB95

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

Our Helper

You know when I was a young Christian, one of my favorite chapters of the Bible, and really one of the first sections of Scripture that I remember being fixated on was John 14. I was then and I sometimes still am now someone that struggles with anxiety and struggles with feeling accepted and John 14 but this chapter has been a constant friend and companion and so I wanted to share some of that with you. I’m not sure what some of you are going back home to. I’m not sure what some of you are feeling right now and I’m not sure how you feel about yourself but one thing I want you to know is that you have not escaped God’s sight. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Hebrews 12:1–2 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” I’ve always been fixated with that phrase, “For the joy set before Him endured the cross.” We talked about this Monday night. Understand, God was not obligated to save anyone. God could have saved no one and He still would have been perfectly just, perfectly righteous, perfectly holy. Why did Jesus endure the cross? Why did He experience hell on earth? To bring glory to God but also to have that which He did not possess before. What was the joy that Jesus had? It was with the full knowledge and assurance that by enduring the cross, there would be a multitude from every tribe, nation, and tongue that would be saved forever. Jesus did not save us because He had to, He saves because He wants to. His desire to save is greater than our desire to be saved and His willingness to forgive is greater than our desire to be forgiven. That’s the kind of Savior that we have. In John 14 where we just read, Jesus’ disciples are being told that Jesus is about to leave them. The cross will come the next day but instead of focusing on Himself, knowing full well the agony that is about to come, turns His attention to His disciples. Instead of saying, “Guys, I am about to experience the full weight of God’s wrath in just a few hours, I could really use a pick me up,” He turns to His disciples and encourages them. Keep in mind they are about to lose their Master, their Lord, their friend. They cannot think of anything worse than a dead Christ even though Jesus has told them that His death will not be the end. In fact, Jesus says that it is better for them if He goes away because then He Himself will send the Holy Spirit, another Helper, that will be with them forever. Jesus says I am not leaving you as orphans, I love you more than you could possibly understand. I want us to look one more time at John 14:27. Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” How can we have assurance before God? It is only because of what Jesus Christ has done. It is through Jesus Christ where true and lasting peace is possible. Look if you have peace with God, it does not matter what the world thinks of you. If you have peace with God, it doesn’t matter what hell thinks of you. The greatest storm of your life, separation from God forever, has been dealt with through Christ. If He is willing to secure your peace through His death on the cross, knowing that He paid a payment like that, why would He ever remove that from you? Paul says in Romans 8:31–34 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” If God is for you, it does not matter who is against you. Jesus has already gone to the cross for His people, He has already suffered for His people, the greatest hurdle has been dealt with, why would God stop loving you now? Jesus has already paid the debt in full! Our sins are cast away and remembered no longer because standing before the right hand of God the Father is our Savior. Dear friends, we have much to be thankful for and we have much that we can be certain of. Who cares what the world offers us, we possess Christ! J.C. Ryle said, “The peace that Christ gives is not given as the world gives. What He gives the world cannot give at all, and what He gives is given neither unwillingly, nor sparingly, nor for a little time. Christ is far more willing to give than man is to receive. What He gives He gives to all eternity, and never takes away.” You can leave here today with assurance of salvation, you can leave here today with the assurance of perfect peace, you can leave here today knowing that He that is for you will never be against you.(John 10:27-28) What should we do in light of all this? Look quickly at 1 John 3 where we see not in full but in part the mission that we have as the people of God.

Our Mission

John writes in 1 John 3:18-24

1 John 3:18–24 NASB95

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

My wife and I love this verse. We love it because we see a command that we have to follow and will never be able to finish side of Heaven. People will know that we are Christians by the things that we do. Specifically, people will know that we are Christians because of the way that we love others. One of my professors, Daniel Akin wrote, “One of the distinguishing marks of the child of God is love, a love that originates in God, displays itself in actions of self-sacrifice, and is evidence of eternal life.” You guys may not have realized this yet but when you get married, hopefully you will notice this. You can tell your spouse you love them all day long but that won’t do a single thing if your actions don’t back it up. If you tell your spouse in the morning that you love them but then you go out and cheat on them in the evening, is that real love? No, all love in order for it to be true love must be a love shown in actions and not just in words. As Christians, we are commanded to love one another. Jesus tells us this in John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Does that sound easy? To love as Jesus has loved us? Well, how has Jesus loved us? Perfectly and sacrificially. His love drives Him to the cross and yet we are to love each other with the same love that Christ loves us. Do you see why I said that 1 John 3:18 is a command that we have to follow and will never be able to finish? If it is impossible, why do we do it? Because Jesus told us to. I think of a moment at the end of John’s gospel where Jesus is recommissioning Peter. I’m sure that some of you remember that on the day that Jesus was arrested, Peter denied Him three times and this broke Peter’s heart. He could not believe that he did that to the One that he loved so dearly and had followed so closely. After the resurrection, Peter I’m sure is wondering what part if any he is going to have in Jesus’ ministry. How would Jesus respond to Peter? One might think that Jesus could look at Peter and say, “You claim that you don’t know me, I don’t know you either.” But what happens? We read in John 21:15–17: “So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.” What is it that Jesus asks Peter? He doesn’t say, “Peter, do you love people? Do you love sheep? Do you love to take care of and feed sheep?” No, He says, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” There’s the motivation right there. There is the motivation that says, while I may not be able to love perfectly as Jesus does, I will strive to love Jesus as perfectly as I can and a testimony of my love to Him is the love that I will share with those that are made in God’s image. That which we do for our brothers and sisters is ultimately an act of service to our God and Savior. Jesus says in Matthew 25:40, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.” Are you willing to do that for Him? Are you willing to live and love as Christ loved and to do it with the full assurance that He will never leave us or forsake us? As we leave here today, leave knowing that it is possible to have peace with God and the peace that we have with God always leads into action and that action is rooted in love. Let’s pray.